Call for soldiers or retirees, modification of journeys, full time … While the profession suffers from a lack of attractiveness, local authorities and actors in the sector are busy finding solutions, short and long -term.
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“There are 8,000 drivers of school cars for the start of the school year.” The alarm cry in June by the National Transport Transport Federation (FNTV) went around the media and aroused concerns. Will students run out of coaches? Will parents have to upset their own schedule to take their children to school?
The weeks flow, back to school approaches, panic grows. “About 20 % of students transported may not have cars at the start of the school year,” said Anne-Gaëlle Simon, deputy general delegate for the FNTV.
If local authorities have been anticipating the problem for months, the organization of the start of the school year is not yet completed. “It is a work of ultraproximity, done with the teeth, impossible to implement in a generalized manner”, according to Regions of France, the institution which represents them.
For the moment, nobody discusses the tracking of line cuts, the school remaining a “priority”. At worst, the regions contacted by Le Monde envisage line mergers or schedule adaptations to the start of the school year “if the situation requires”. Last recourse solutions that could disrupt the operation of schools. “Organizing a high school according to transport problems is always complicated,” recalls Florent Martin, principal of a versatile high school in Argelès-sur-Mer (Pyrénées-Orientales), who fears to see his jobs upset to The last minute.
a carriage school in Normandy 2>
The shortage affects the entire territory. Each region has a more or less important workforce deficit. In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, we are looking for 1,000 drivers. In Occitanie, no less than 550. In Hauts-de-France and Pays-de-la-Loire, 400 are missing.
Despite these alarming figures, the regional councils – holders of the transport competence since the start of the 2019 school year – want to be reassuring because the massive recruitment campaigns are starting to bear fruit. More than 300 bus drivers have been recruited this summer in Normandy, bringing the region’s deficit back to 70 vacant stations. Carole Delga, the socialist president of the Occitanie region, promised that “the service will be provided under normal conditions in September” thanks to the recruitment of 300 drivers. With 150 vacant stations, New Aquitaine recognizes a tense situation “without being catastrophic”. To enlist, the regions have put the double bites: major communication operations, attractiveness allowances, fully supported training, revaluation of wages of 5 %…
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